There is a huge opportunity to live streaming – bigger than the average video to grow your presence. Live video is great for practice and great for engagement.

In a recent live video I did, I got an awesome comment from Holisticlea: “I only just started out and have very few subscribers, only 12 to be exact. I know consistency is needed here, I am working on it. Would going live still be useful and how would I go about getting people over to come take part in the live video?”

I know that sometimes it feels hard to do all the things when you’re just getting started: define your audience, ask them what they want, etc. It’s hard to answer all of the questions when just your Mom is watching. (Hi, Mom. Thanks for being here, but I don’t do this for you.)

Yes, live streaming is a great from an engagement standpoint, but it’s also great from a YouTube algorithm standpoint. If you’re about to click away because you’re convinced you can’t go live because you don’t have enough subscribers, I’m here to disagree with you.

Why should you go use YouTube live?

There is a differentiator on YouTube that shows viewers who is live now. There’s actually a little, red icon that shows you who is live now.

When someone clicks on a live video, it tells the viewers how many other people are there, which makes YouTube happy. YouTube wants people to stay on their platform and to keep watching videos.

What is your life stream going to accomplish?

Maybe it’s a conversation with your audience. Maybe it’s a talking head video in live format – which makes evergreen content and catches the people who want to watch live. Double win.

You have to make sure the people watching the replay are having a great experience, just like the people who watched live. Don’t let the replay audience feel like they missed out.

Live video gets a ton of engagement

People are likely to leave a comment on a video that was pre-recorded, but the engagement level is even higher when you go live. You get to have a conversation with the audience in real-time. The emoji game can get crazy during live video.

Live comments don’t live on after the live video stops – I don’t know why; this is just the reality. If there are lots of comments on the life stream, YouTube will see that and reward you.

Notify the audience you do have that you’re going live. (You can tell your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. and then follow through on YouTube.) Treat going live as an important piece of your content plan and people will respond to you.

Bring people over to YouTube somehow with intention of growing your channel. Show why you have a brand of people who care about you. Ask your friends to show up and support you. Prove that you are getting attention and that you’re going to work hard to build your subscribers and to get more attention.

Question of the day: What could you make a live video about that would be equally as awesome as making a pre-recorded video?